


Changing of the Guard

by myownspecialself



Category: Smallville
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-12-14
Updated: 2002-12-14
Packaged: 2017-11-01 09:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/354814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myownspecialself/pseuds/myownspecialself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Snugglefic Challenge. "Happy New Year. I think<br/>this year will be better than the last." Jonathan's POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changing of the Guard

## Changing of the Guard

by Myownspecialself

<http://www.livejournal.com/users/mosself>

* * *

December 2002 

Written for Isilya's Snugglefic Challenge. [http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=isilya&itemid=71627&nc=42](http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=isilya&itemid=71627&nc=42) Many thanks to my two wonderful betas, Philtre and Reetchick. 

* * *

A poke in his stomach-- followed right away by another in his chest-- woke him up in mid-snore. 

Opening his eyes, he found himself nose to nose with Binks. He frowned at her. She gave two urgent meows as she stepped off his stomach and leapt onto the floor. She looked pointedly at him before walking out of the room. 

He sighed and got out of bed. The cold made him shake in his flannel pajamas so he quickly threw on his heaviest bathrobe and slid his feet into old, lace-less sneakers. Martha hadn't stirred; her breathing continued steady and rhythmic. He sighed again and went out into the hallway. 

Downstairs, he found Binks waiting at the kitchen door. As he fumbled with the doorknob, he squinted at the clock on the wall. Ten minutes to four. He made a mental note to remind Clark: "Before you lock up for the evening and go to bed, make sure _both_ cats are in the barn. Or at least not in the house." 

Binks trotted out onto the porch, stopped, and looked back at him. She meowed, this time less urgently. So this wasn't a feline potty break, he thought, just about to close the door and return to bed. Suddenly he remembered that Desdemona, the other cat, had gone into labor earlier that evening. 

He turned around and went quickly through the kitchen to the hall. He opened a cabinet door and grabbed an old blanket, and then another. Returning to the kitchen, he stopped long enough to open a drawer and fish out a small flashlight. He stepped onto the porch and closed the door behind him. 

Binks had started down the porch steps as soon as she heard him coming through the kitchen. Halfway across the barnyard, she stopped to look back at him. He hastened his pace, eager for the relative warmth of the barn. 

When he was almost at the partially open barn door, he saw the red Ferrari parked nearby. He remembered that they had given Clark permission for Lex to hang out with him-- even spend the night. New Year's Eve was, after all, a special occasion. One to be enjoyed with loved ones. He briefly wondered if Lex would ever have thought that welcoming the new year could include stopping by the Kent farm to watch a cat have kittens. 

To celebrate New Year's Eve, he had taken Martha to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. Afterwards, they had seen a late-night movie at one of the newer movie theaters. Returning shortly after midnight, they chose to retire early rather than stop by the loft to check on the young men and see if Desdemona's kittens had arrived. 

Binks was already at the top of the loft stairs when he entered the barn. A horse stirred in one of the far stalls. The murmur of the television drifted down from the loft. 

_They must still be awake_. He paused at the bottom step. He cleared his throat. 

"Guys! I'm coming up to check on the kittens," he called out in a normal voice. The warning was more a courtesy than a necessity: Clark was almost eighteen, but still capable of remarkable bashfulness, and Lex often seemed just as inhibited. On the farm, the two young men always behaved as if he and Martha were sitting right there with them. More often than not, they were. 

At the top of the stairs, he halted and waited for them to acknowledge his presence. The glow of a table lamp and the shimmer of the television screen did little to illuminate the loft, and several seconds passed before he became aware that Clark and Lex were semi-huddled side by side on the couch-- asleep. 

Clark apparently had taken the thin quilted cover from his bed sometime before he and Lex sat down to watch television. They now both snoozed under the quilt, which reached halfway up their chests. Clark's bed, unused and un-rumpled, stood in the far corner. 

Binks meowed. He looked in her direction and saw that she sat by the large pet carrier that Clark must have set up earlier that day. The door to the carrier was open. A tattered sleeping bag, completely unzipped, lay draped across the top and sides to insulate the makeshift nursery. 

Leaving the blankets on the stair rail, he walked softly across the loft floor to kneel at the door of the carrier. Shining the flashlight, he peeked in. 

Among flannel strips and cotton rags, Desdemona lay there with four balls of fur that mewed softly and constantly as they nursed. She greeted him with a tired squeak. He reached in slowly. Gently, he scratched behind her ears. She meowed, low and almost like a grunt, and it seemed to him the sound of one parent commiserating with another. 

He nodded knowingly to Desdemona, unaware that he did so. He got up off his knees and managed not to groan as he stood up: God, when had he gotten so old? Suddenly aware of how cold it was, even inside the barn, he shivered. He padded quietly over to the rail and took one of the blankets. 

On his way over to the couch he stopped and took in the sound of Clark's soft snoring. He briefly pondered the fact that Lex didn't snore. _Even when he's asleep he doesn't relax completely_. 

He noticed the positions of the two young men. Sitting almost entirely upright, Lex slept with one hand in his lap. His other arm, between Clark and the couch, went across Clark's back. The younger man was also sitting, but he slumped towards Lex, his head on his lover's shoulder. 

Suddenly Clark jerked slightly and whimpered, eyes still closed. Jonathan instinctively took a step forward. He caught himself in time, resisting the urge to lean over and shush comfortingly, to stroke his son's hair. To tell him that everything was okay because Dad was right here. 

A second later he heard Lex murmur faintly, his eyes also still closed. The bald young man shifted and closed his long arms completely around Clark, drawing him closer. Clark relaxed almost at once; he seemed to melt against Lex. When his head came to rest on Lex's chest, he let out a quiet moan of contentment. Then the snoring resumed, this time more softly. 

To the casual observer, Lex hugged Clark to his chest the way a child seeks from a teddy bear. Yet Jonathan suddenly realized that it was Lex who-- even when asleep-- would now be Clark's protector. From now on, the first to tell Clark that everything was okay. 

Stealthily he unfolded the blanket and spread it over the couple. He froze when Clark twitched. Holding his breath, he moved slowly back to the stair rail and took the second blanket. He slowly unfolded it halfway as he crept behind the couch. He paused for a few seconds and then lowered it gently across the back of Lex's neck and shoulders. Even full grown, Clark still seemed to crave warmth and cuddling, but Jonathan knew that his son would never really feel the cold the way that Lex-- or anyone else-- did. 

He looked down and saw a determined Binks approaching the couch. With wry amusement, he watched as she made her way onto the mountain of blankets and warm bodies and found a valley in which to nestle. He leaned over and rubbed behind her ears and felt the rumble of her purring. 

He carefully switched off the lamp and the television set. One last glance back at the couple, and then he started down the stairs. He walked out of the barn and hurried across the yard, up the porch. Entering the kitchen, he didn't close the door but instead turned back to look at the barn. 

"Happy New Year." He said it so softly that he might have well as just thought it. "I think this year will be better than the last." 

He wondered if he wished it for his no-longer-a-boy son or for Lex, or maybe even for the pair they had become. Hand on the doorknob, he stood there for a few seconds. He couldn't admit that he had really said it to take his mind off that slight, bittersweet ache in his heart. 

Shutting the kitchen door, he sighed and went upstairs. 

~End 


End file.
